The House voted late Thursday night to stop allowing the Drug Enforcement Administration to spend money going after medical marijuana producers and sellers in states where medicinal mary jane is legal. An appropriations amendment that contained the new rule passed 219-189, reflecting a sea change in national attitudes toward medical and legalized cannabis.
The amendment was co-sponsored by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), who presented it on the floor, along with Reps. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Sam Farr (D-Calif.), Don Young (R-Alaska), Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), Tom McClintock (R-Calif.), Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), Paul Broun (R-Ga.), Jared Polis (D-Colo.), Steve Stockman (R-Texas), Dina Titus (D-NV), and Justin Amash (R-MI).
During the debate, outspoken Congressman and legal pot advocate Cohen said, "We saw ‘reefer madness’ in the ’30s, and it has come back to Congress here 80-some-odd years later. Marijuana does not make people commit crime. It makes them overeat."
Arguing against the bill was Louisiana Republican John Fleming, who also kind of wishes we could get Prohibition back.
The Senate is said to be working on their own DEA appropriations bill, and this amendment would have to survive a joint conference of both houses in order to go into effect.
DEA raids have been an annoying fact of life for Bay Area medical marijuana providers over the last decade. This move by Congress comes just two and a half years after a widely publicized crackdown by the federal government on medical marijuana across California, two years after the Bay Area's biggest dispensary came under threat of federal seizure, and two years after the DEA raided Oaksterdam University in Oakland.
A recent CBS News poll found that 51 percent of Americans support the complete legalization of marijuana, and a whopping 85 percent believe that doctors should be allowed to prescribe medical cannabis for seriously ill patients. 22 states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for medical use.
